Adagio for Glass Harmonica C major K. 356 (617a)
Piano solo
In brief

This short piece projects an inward, delicate atmosphere, almost suspended, where silences and very soft sounds create a sense of fragile sparkle rather than broad romantic sweep. You will face specific technical challenges such as Legato (2.5/5): here it requires maintaining an unbroken sonic line through precise finger connection and subtle use of arm weight so notes flow without bumps, and Nuances (2.5/5): you must shape very fine touch variations and extremely soft dynamics (ppp–pp) to preserve the piece's fragile balance. Listed in the catalogue as K. 356 (617a), it holds a particular place among Mozart's output as a contemplative miniature associated with an uncommon original instrumentation. I do not provide performance reference recordings because I prefer not to name them unless I am certain of their direct relevance to this piano version.

MusicCoach difficulty
29/100
Elementary
Likely range : 23–35/100
Confidence : 55% · fair confidence
BeginnerIntermediateAdvancedVirtuoso
Exam grade
About grade 3

Estimated from our difficulty score, not taken from an exam syllabus. Checked against 333 works on the ABRSM syllabus: the exact grade is right 7 times out of 10, and within one grade 99 times out of 100.

Difficulty estimate by MusicCoach on a scale of 1 to 100.

Where this work sits
050100

Most works cluster between 45 and 65: a small score gap often marks a real step. The highlighted bar shows this work among those for the same instrument.

The MusicCoach difficulty measures a work's overall demands (technique, reading, stamina) on a shared 0-100 scale, consolidated from editorial and pedagogical reference points (Henle, exam syllabuses, curation) and our own analyses. It measures neither musical value nor the practice time YOU will need: two musicians of the same level can experience the same work very differently depending on their strengths (hands used to octaves, quick sight-reading…). The confidence reflects how many reference points sit behind the score and how well they agree — a lightly documented score is flagged “to validate”. For a truly personal bearing, the diagnostic and your space compare each work to YOUR estimated level, which the score alone cannot do.

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Difficulty sources
Henle Verlag
3
28/100 normalised
Relative difficulty
18%
Among Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
18%
Era
Genre
Estimated skills
Technique
Legato
1
Interpretation
Dynamics
1
Interpretation
Phrasing
1
What to play next?

Each suggestion combines difficulty gap, risk, confidence and skill overlap. The first two cards in each column are the most useful pedagogically.

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